1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications devices and, more specifically, to a plasmonic communications device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless data traffic has drastically increased due to a change in the way information is created, shared and consumed. This change has been accompanied by an increasing demand for much higher speed wireless communication systems. In particular, wireless data rates have doubled about every eighteen months over the last three decades and they are quickly approaching the capacity of wired communication systems. Following this trend, wireless terabit-per-second (Tbps) data links will be needed within the next five to ten years. Advanced physical layer solutions and, more importantly, new spectral bands will be required to support these extremely high data rates.
In this context, terahertz (THz) band communication is envisioned as a key wireless technology to satisfy this demand by alleviating the spectrum scarcity and capacity limitations of current wireless systems, and enabling many applications in diverse fields. The THz band is the spectral band that spans the frequencies between 0.1 THz and 10 THz.
Wireless technologies below 0.1 THz are generally not able to support Tbps links. On the one hand, advanced digital modulations, e.g., Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and sophisticated communication schemes, e.g., very large scale Multiple Input Mul-tiple Output (MIMO) systems, are being used to achieve a very high spectral efficiency at frequencies below 5 GHz. However, the scarcity of the available bandwidth limits the achievable data rates. For example, in Long-Term Evolution Advanced (LTEA) networks, peak data rates in the order of 1 Gbps are possible when using a four-by-four MIMO scheme over a 100 MHz aggregated bandwidth. These data rates are three orders of magnitude below the targeted 1 Tbps. On the other hand, millimeter wave (mm-wave) communication systems, such as those at 60 GHz, can support data rates in the order of 10 Gbps within one meter. This data rate is still two orders of magnitude below the expected demand. The path to improve the data rate involves the development of more complex transceiver architectures able to implement physical layer solutions with much higher spectral efficiency. However, the usable bandwidth is usually limited to less than 7 GHz, which effectively imposes an upper bound on the data rates.
Therefore, there is a need for a communications system that can support THz band communications.